Rebecca is a great player, I really like her style.She is the second place in the race as Ace leaders in 2 matches, 1 behind Venus.
Raonic is getting pretty good too. this year He will end up in the top 50.

Raonic leads the tournament in aces and he also hit the fastest serve so far at 143 mph.

Saw him a couple of times on the outdoor courts at Uniprix stadium last summer. One on occasion (probably the hottest day of the summer) all the courts were empty except me for me and my partner and some heavy hitting on the court behind us. Turns out it was Daniel Nestor practicing with/coaching Milos Raonic. The kid has serious talent but like all big kids, he's going to have to work on his movement.

Since that's the national tennis center, I often see Dubois, Wozniak (Marino once) and the top juniors training there as well. The ball speed on groundstrokes is mindboggling.

Not just IN his first ATP final, he WON his first ATP final! Wowza!!!! It's crazy how well he's done this last six months and how neat for you Marius that you kind of 'know' him. Reading back through this thread, you've been touting how good he was going to be for three years or so. This is so exciting for Canadian tennis!

And what's really great is that Sportsnet broadcast it nationally. Maybe we'll start to get a lot more tennis on tv. Woot!

Hope you managed to catch it on Sportsnet. For all of those who did, it would be a good idea to contact them and let them know you watched and enjoyed it and maybe they'll show a lot more matches. I especially want them aired on the main Sportsnet channel as I don't get Sportsnet1.

Well, it'd be nice if they'd put it on the main channel instead of the umpteenth repeat of Connected or a months old darts tournament. Most Canadians can't get Sportsnet 1 and we should all be making lots of noise to Sportsnet until they switch so that more Canadians can be exposed to good tennis.

Well, it'd be nice if they'd put it on the main channel instead of the umpteenth repeat of Connected or a months old darts tournament. Most Canadians can't get Sportsnet 1 and we should all be making lots of noise to Sportsnet until they switch so that more Canadians can be exposed to good tennis.

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LOL. I agree with you. I get the SN1 channel as well but I can't say that I watch that channel very often. There seems to be a lot of darts on SN1 too!

The hard-serving 20-year-old from Thornhill, Ont., will then face Daniel Garza on Sunday.

Watch it live on Sportsnet ONE Friday at 12 p.m. ET. All matches will be streamed live on sportsnet.ca.

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* Pospisil replaces Nestor
* Raonic to play Indian Wells

Frank Dancevic of Niagara Falls, Ont., will play Garza in the first match of the tie Friday. Dancevic will face Sanchez in Sunday's second match.

Raonic will team with Vasek Pospisil of Vernon, B.C., in Saturday's doubles match against Luis Diaz-Barriga and Miguel-Angel Reyes-Varela.

Raonic is currently 37th and Dancevic 202nd in the ATP singles rankings, while Garza is No. 439 and Sanchez No. 546.

"Having such a deep team, especially in singles, is a good problem for a captain to have," Canadian team captain Martin Laurendeau said in a statement. "I feel very confident in the guys we've chosen to start the tie off on Friday and we have Peter (Polansky of Thornhill, Ont.) and Vasek here and ready to step in if needed."

A win over Mexico will move the Canadian squad to a second-round pairing with Ecuador in July, while a loss would force them to play a relegation tie to keep their spot in Americas Zone Group I for 2012.

Sports fans will be served the rarest of Canadian television sporting events this weekend, thanks entirely to 20-year-old tennis phenomenon Milos Raonic.

Raonic’s spectacular start to the 2011 season prompted Rogers Sportsnet to make the decision to broadcast nationwide the Canadian Davis Cup team’s matches from Mexico starting Friday at noon on Sportsnet One.

Tennis Canada officials couldn’t remember the last time Canadians had a chance to watch their Davis Cup team compete in the annual international tournament other than a one-off broadcast in 2003.

Sportsnet and Tennis Canada officials also acknowledge that Raonic, from Thornhill, Ont., is the reason the Davis Cup is on Canadian TV for the first time in eight years.

Last month, the broadcaster made a last-minute decision to show Raonic’s winning performance in the final of an ATP Tour event at San Jose. About 56,000 viewers watched. A week later, Raonic lost a thriller to Andy Roddick of the U.S. in the final at Memphis, and the Canadian audience jumped to almost 160,000.

“Milos Raonic has . . . captured the attention of viewers across the country and really catapulted tennis into the forefront right now,” said Dave Rashford, director of communications for Rogers Sportsnet. “Canadians are excited about him.”

Raonic’s rise to prominence couldn’t be better timed for the network, which moved to increase its coverage of live tennis just weeks before the young Canadian’s star was born at the Australian Open in January.

“It’s like catching lightning in a bottle here,” Rashford said. “Everyone wants to know how Milos is doing. Canadians want to see him play. It’s not just, ‘I want to see Federer or Nadal’ any more. It’s, ‘I want to see Milos.’ ”

Michael Downey, head of Tennis Canada, says Raonic and rising Canadian women’s star Rebecca Marino of Vancouver have “opened (Sportsnet’s) eyes to the power of these kids.”

After both players appeared in finals last month in the joint Memphis ATP and WTA Tour events — Sportsnet made hurried arrangements to obtain permission to air Marino’s final, too — Sportsnet contacted Tennis Canada to seek broadcast rights to the Davis Cup and the women’s equivalent, the Fed Cup.

“We used to go out and ask them (to broadcast Davis Cup tennis), but generally the response was, ‘Only if you are going to buy the time will we put it on for you,’ ” Downey said.

That has changed, and Downey says it’s entirely because of Raonic, who has risen from 152nd to 37th in the men’s world rankings and Marino, who has risen from 101st to 61st.

Sportsnet acquired the TV rights to all major ATP events last fall, while TSN continues to hold Canadian broadcast rights to the Grand Slam events.

The Canadian jewel in the package for Sportsnet was the Rogers Cup, which alternates the men’s and women’s tournaments annually between Toronto and Montreal. With airtime to fill on its recently launched Sportsnet One channel, the broadcaster also purchased rights to lower-level tournaments without knowing Raonic was only weeks away from breaking out.

TSN’s Grand Slam tournament coverage will also benefit from Raonic, as his ranking provides automatic entry into the Grand Slam events.

“There is going to be demand,” Downey says.

Raonic has been watching the clamour from abroad.

“I think (Memphis) showed all of Canada that there really is something buzzing around with tennis,”